First Lines Friday #2

First Lines Fridays is a weekly event hosted by Emma @ Wandering Words. The purpose is to get readers interested in a book by reading the first lines before even knowing what the book is. This week I’m using a book that I’ve had from the library for awhile but haven’t quite gotten around to reading yet.

Here are your first lines for this week:

“Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a rabbit who was made almost entirely of china. He had china arms and china legs, china paws, and a china head, a china torso and a china nose. His arms and legs were jointed and joined by wire so that his china elbows and china knees could be bent, giving him much freedom of movement.”

Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost. . . .

Kate DiCamillo takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the bedside of an ailing child to the bustling streets of Memphis. Along the way, we are shown a miracle – that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.

I want to read this book because somehow the premise reminds me of one of my favorite children’s stories: The Velveteen Rabbit and I’ve heard great things about this one.